P-3 Orion Videos

The F-35C Carrier Suitability Test Team deployed aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) for Developmental Test Phase Two (DT-II) in October 2015. Trials with F-35C test aircraft CF-03 and CF-05 spanned nine days in operating areas near the Atlantic coast between Florida and Virginia. DT-II followed a successful round of initial sea trials in 2014.

F-35B test aircraft BF-17 was flown over Edwards AFB, California, during several aerial refueling missions behind KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-10 Extender tankers. The tests involved a drogue adapter attached to the centerline refueling boom on the KC-135 and the hose-and-drogue refueling system on the KC-10.

Every major US weapon system and its associated equipment make the trek to Eglin to undergo environmental testing at the lab. The F-35 is the latest to be frozen, baked, deluged, snowed, blown, fogged, and humidified.

The previous F-35 Flight Test Update concluded with F-35A test aircraft AF-3 completing 500 flight hours on 18 March 2013, making AF-3 the second mission systems test Lightning II to reach this milestone. This fourteenth installment in the series of F-35 flight testing reviews presents a large variety of additional milestones for the F-35 test fleet from a monthly flight record for the F-35 CATBird in March to the completion of the initial carrier trials for the F-35C in November.

The previous F-35 Flight Test Update concluded with the first live guided missile launch from an F-35 on 30 October 2013. This first installment of 2014 and the thirteenth installment overall in the series of F-35 flight testing reviews presents a variety of subsequent weapon testing, including additional guided AIM-120 missile launches and guided GBU-32 drops for the F-35A, AIM-120 separation tests for the F-35C, and ten-weapon loads for the F-35A and F-35C. High angle of attack testing continued with the beginning of intentional departure tests of the F-35C at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division test facility at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. The F-35 System Development and Demonstration Program set flight duration records and surpassed 4,000 total test flights during this period as well.

The F-35 Flight Test Update in the Volume 28, Number 2 issue of Code One concluded with the 500th vertical landing of an F-35B on 3 August 2013. This twelfth installment in the series of flight test updates on the F-35 program covers the successful second phase of shipboard testing for the F-35B, the beginning of high angle of attack testing for the F-35C, plus other major achievements of the F-35 Integrated Test Force located at the Air Force Test Center at Edwards AFB, California, and at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division test facility at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.